I’ll Never Learn To Say Goodbye

My Robot Friend “One More Try” – I tried and just could not bring myself to get into Antony and the Johnsons, but as it turns out, it probably wasn’t Antony Hegarty’s weird Aaron Neville-with-a-sinus-infection voice that was getting in the way of my enjoyment of their records. Unsurprisingly, Hegarty is a perfect fit for torch-song disco, hamming it up like Marc Almond or Andy Bell on a song that sort of resembles Annie Lennox’s brilliant “Little Bird” with all the difficult-to-sing parts removed. This is excellent stuff. More please! (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

Clipse “Re-Up Anthem (Nick Catchdubs Remix)” – The Eric Clapton sample is a bit on-the-nose (ha, not a pun – that’d be up-the-nose, right?), but Nick Catchdubs works it nicely, serving the rap well with a groove that makes the vocals pop a bit more than on the original mix. (Click here to buy it from DJ Benzi.)

Elsewhere: Marathon Packs on the inexplicable bi-curiosity of the Miracles on the obscure and unintentionally hilarious gem “Ain’t Nobody Straight In L.A.”

And: The first movie review of the summer is up on The Movie Binge, where myself and five other contributors will be reviewing (sometimes as a group, sometimes on our own) every single movie coming out in America between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The first film is, of course, X-Men: The Last Stand, and it’s a tag team effort featuring almost all of us, plus a trivia contest with a cool prize if you’re into video games. I stand by my review of the film, but I admit that it is not quite as sharp as what Todd has to say over on The Face Knife.